Intercepting and analysing data packet from android applications to gain perspective of unauthorised disemmination of location information: article / Muhamad Iqbal Basir

The mobile phone is a modern marvel to humankind since its main role has expanded far from just making a simple call. Other than making calls or sending messages, the mobile phone now offers high speed processing power, high RAM capacity and built in Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation device just to name a few. The Android operating system is a major player in the mobile phone industry. Its operating system provide programming interfaces and platforms to fully utilize the mobile phone resource capability. No overhead cost and third party application support from Google Play, has made the operating system (OS) the discernible choice for mobile phones. As the mobile phone becomes more advanced, it is disturbing to know that it is also capable of silently spying on our privacy to the point of disseminating user location information stored in the android device to unauthorized parties. This study aims to identify how users' location information are being transmitted to public domain through analyzing data packet transmitted through our mobile phone. This work also proposes a feasible method for users to closely monitor their location privacy when using an android device. The result of data collection and intensive observation of more than 8000 (0.3% of total application available in Google Play Store) sample applications, it was found that more than 3000 of them had requested android location information